[EAS] NWS dissemination systems to reflect a county name change and associated FIPS code change effective Oct 1, 2015

Mon Aug 31 06:57:23 CDT 2015

South Dakota Governor Dennis Daugaard implemented the
name change on May 1, 2015. This is a retransmission
of the original NWS notice sent on May 27, 2015. All
NWS dissemination systems will implement the change on
October 1, 2015.

Service Change Notice 15-XX
National Weather Service Headquarters Washington DC
HHHH AM EDT Mon Aug 31 2015

          - Family of Services
          - NOAA Weather Wire Service
          - Emergency Managers Weather Information Network
          - NOAAPORT
          Other NWS partners and NWS employees

From:     Mark Tew
          Acting Chief, Digital and Graphical Information
          Support Branch

          Information Processing Series (FIPS) code for
          Shannon County, SD, Effective for NWS
          Products and Services on October 1, 2015

REMINDER:  Effective Thursday, October 1, 2015 at 1600 Coordinated
Universal Time (UTC), 10:00 AM Mountain Daylight Time (MDT), all
NWS products and services will no longer use the name Shannon County
and the FIPS Code 46113; NWS will begin using the name Oglala Lakota
County and the FIPS Code 46102.

The name of Shannon County, SD, changed to Oglala Lakota County,
SD, effective May 1, 2015. Because of the extensive coordination
and planning required by the weather enterprise and the
emergency management community to successfully complete this
change, the official date of change for NWS products and
services for the county name change and the FIPS code change
will be October 1, 2015, at 1600 UTC, 10:00 AM MDT.

Major points to be aware of for NWS products and services:

The county name will change from Shannon to Oglala Lakota.  The
existing county boundaries will not change. County names are
maintained by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names.

-The FIPS code changes from 46113 to a 46102. FIPS codes are
assigned and maintained by the U.S. Census Bureau.

-The Universal Geographic Code by County (UGC-C) will change
from SDC113 to SDC102.

-The NWS public forecast zone name will change from Shannon to
Oglala Lakota. The existing UGC by Zone (UGC-Z), SDZ042, remains
unchanged,

-No NWS fire weather zone names or numbers will change.

The UGC-C, used in some NWS products and the county portion of
the NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards (NWR) Specific Area Message
Encoding (SAME) code, is derived from the FIPS code. Therefore,
on October 1, 2015, the NWS will discontinue using the current
FIPS code for Shannon County (46113) and begin using the new
FIPS code (46102) for Oglala Lakota County.  The correct county
code is critical for receiving tornado, severe thunderstorm, and
flash flood watch, warning, and follow-up products.

A complete list of WFO Rapid City (UNR) products affected by the
UGC-C change, the county name change and/or the public forecast
zone name change is on line at:

  http://www.nws.noaa.gov/os/dissemination/unr.docx

Updated AWIPS county and public forecast zone shape files,
reflecting the new county name and county FIPS/SAME code change
are on line, respectively at:

  http://www.nws.noaa.gov/geodata/catalog/county/html/county.htm

  http://www.nws.noaa.gov/geodata/catalog/wsom/html/pubzone.htm

All NWS partners and users and weather radio owners who receive
products that rely on the NWR SAME code will need to reprogram
their equipment no later than October 1, 2015. We recommend
people program the new code (46102) at their earliest
convenience, keep the current code (46113) in their systems
until October 1, 2015, and delete the old code (46113) after the
implementation.

Instructions on reprogramming your weather radio are in the
owner's manual or available from the manufacturer of your radio,
your local retailer or online at the radio manufacturer's web
site. A list of many weather radio receiver manufacturers is on
line at:

  http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/info/nwrrcvr.html#consumers

NWS SAME code information is available at:

  http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/info/nwrsame.html

or by calling a toll-free number: 1-888-NWR-SAME (1-888-697-7263).

All NWS partners and users who receive NWS products and parse
exact text strings will need to change Shannon County to Oglala
Lakota County in their software and systems operations.

In the event October 1, 2015, is declared a Critical Weather Day
(CWD) or significant weather is occurring, or forecast to occur,
in or near Oglala Lakota County, SD, implementation of this NWS
change will occur at 1600 UTC on the next weekday not declared a
CWD Day and when no significant weather is occurring in or near
Oglala Lakota County, SD.

Additional details on the upcoming changes will be posted on the
WFO Rapid City home page at:

  www.weather.gov/unr/

For more information, please contact:

  Susan Sanders
  Warning Coordination Meteorologist
  WFO Rapid City, SD
  Susan.Sanders at noaa.gov
  605-341-9271_X726

  Timothy Schott
  Digital and Graphical Information Support Branch
  NWS Headquarters
  Silver Spring, MD
  Timothy.Schott at noaa.gov
  301-427-9336

National Service Change Notices are online at:

  http://www.weather.gov/os/notif.htm

$$

Tim Schott
NWS Dissemination Services
office:  301-427-9336
cell:  703-314-4343